We're here to celebrate compassion. But compassion, from my vantage point, has a problem. As essential as it is across our traditions, as real as so many of us know it to be in particular lives, the word "compassion" is hollowed out in our culture, and it is suspect in my field of journalism. It's seen as a squishy kumbaya thing, or it's seen as potentially depressing. Karen Armstrong has told what I think is an iconic story of giving a speech in Holland and, after the fact, the word "compassion" was translated as "pity."
Ovde smo da slavimo saosećanje. Ali saosećanje, sa moje tačke gledišta, ima problem. Koliko god da je neizostavno u našim tradicijama, koliko god da je prisutno u nečijim životima, reč "saosećanje" je ofucana kroz našu kulturu, i uvek je pod lupom sumnje u novinarstvu. Na to se gleda kao na neku kumbaja stvar. Ili kao potencijalno depresivnu stvar. Karen Armstrong je ispričala, po mom mišljenju, jednu veoma simboličnu priču o držanju govora u Holandiji gde je reč "saosećanje" prevedena kao sažaljenje.
Now compassion, when it enters the news, too often comes in the form of feel-good feature pieces or sidebars about heroic people you could never be like or happy endings or examples of self-sacrifice that would seem to be too good to be true most of the time. Our cultural imagination about compassion has been deadened by idealistic images. And so what I'd like to do this morning for the next few minutes is perform a linguistic resurrection. And I hope you'll come with me on my basic premise that words matter, that they shape the way we understand ourselves, the way we interpret the world and the way we treat others.
Kada se saosećanje pojavi u vestima prečesto je to u formi reportaža koje čine da se dobro osećate ili onih o herojima kakvi vi nikada ne biste mogli biti, ili srećnim završecima kao i primeri samožrtvovanja koji bi delovali previše dobro da bi bili istiniti, u većini slučajeva. Naša kulturološka zamisao saosećanja je umrtvljena idealističkim slikama. I ono što bih ja volela da uradim ovog jutra, tokom sledećih nekoliko minuta je da izvedem lingvističko vaskrsnuće. I nadam se da ćete se složiti sa mnom da reči jesu važne, da one oblikuju način na koji razumemo sebe, na koji interpretiramo svet kao i način na koji tretiramo druge.
When this country first encountered genuine diversity in the 1960s, we adopted tolerance as the core civic virtue with which we would approach that. Now the word "tolerance," if you look at it in the dictionary, connotes "allowing," "indulging" and "enduring." In the medical context that it comes from, it is about testing the limits of thriving in an unfavorable environment. Tolerance is not really a lived virtue; it's more of a cerebral ascent. And it's too cerebral to animate guts and hearts and behavior when the going gets rough. And the going is pretty rough right now. I think that without perhaps being able to name it, we are collectively experiencing that we've come as far as we can with tolerance as our only guiding virtue.
Kada se ova zemlja prvi put suočila sa raznolikošću u šezdesetim godinama XX veka, usvojili smo toleranciju kao osnovnu građansku vrlinu na osnovu koje bismo delali. Sada, reč "tolerancija", ako pogledate u rečniku, sugeriše dopuštanje, udovoljavanje i podnošenje. Medicinsko značenje, odakle i potiče, podrazumeva testiranje granica napredovanja u nepovoljnim uslovima. Tolerancija nije baš stvarna vrlina, više je cerebralni uspon. I previše je cerebralni da bi animirao hrabrost i srce i ponašanje kada okolnosti nisu sjajne. A okolnosti nisu baš sjajne upravo sada. Mislim da možda bez sposobnosti imenovanja mi kolektivno osećamo da smo dostigli dokle smo mogli sa tolerancijom kao našom jedinom vrlinom vodiljom.
Compassion is a worthy successor. It is organic, across our religious, spiritual and ethical traditions, and yet it transcends them. Compassion is a piece of vocabulary that could change us if we truly let it sink into the standards to which we hold ourselves and others, both in our private and in our civic spaces. So what is it, three-dimensionally? What are its kindred and component parts? What's in its universe of attendant virtues? To start simply, I want to say that compassion is kind. Now "kindness" might sound like a very mild word, and it's prone to its own abundant cliche. But kindness is an everyday byproduct of all the great virtues. And it is a most edifying form of instant gratification.
Saosećanje je dostojan sledbenik. Prirodno je, prisutno u našim religioznim, spiritualnim i etičkim tradicijama, a opet ih prevazilazi. Saosećanje je deo vokabulara koji bi mogao da nas promeni ako zaista dozvolimo da uplovi u standarde po kojim živimo, kojih se držimo i u svojim privatnim i civilnim prostorima. Da li to znači da je trodimenzionalno? Koji su njegovi srodni i sastavni delovi? Koje druge vrline ga čine? Počela bih jednostavno. Želim reći da je saosećanje ljubazno. Sada, ljubaznost može biti veoma blaga reč i sklona je svom klišeu. Ali ljubaznost je svakodnevni nusprodukt među svim velikim vrlinama. I to je najpoučnija forma trenutnog zadovoljenja.
Compassion is also curious. Compassion cultivates and practices curiosity. I love a phrase that was offered me by two young women who are interfaith innovators in Los Angeles, Aziza Hasan and Malka Fenyvesi. They are working to create a new imagination about shared life among young Jews and Muslims, and as they do that, they cultivate what they call "curiosity without assumptions." Well that's going to be a breeding ground for compassion.
Saosećanje je takođe radoznalo. Saosećanje neguje i vežba radoznalost. Jako volim frazu koja mi je ponuđena od strane dveju mladih žena koje su međuverski inovatori u Los Anđelesu, Aziza Hasan i Malka Fenivesi. One rade na stvaranju nove imaginacije o zajedničkom životu mladih Jevreja i Muslimana. I tokom svog rada one kultivišu, takozvanu "radoznalost bez pretpostavki". Pa, to će biti plodno tlo za saosećanje.
Compassion can be synonymous with empathy. It can be joined with the harder work of forgiveness and reconciliation, but it can also express itself in the simple act of presence. It's linked to practical virtues like generosity and hospitality and just being there, just showing up. I think that compassion also is often linked to beauty -- and by that I mean a willingness to see beauty in the other, not just what it is about them that might need helping. I love it that my Muslim conversation partners often speak of beauty as a core moral value. And in that light, for the religious, compassion also brings us into the territory of mystery -- encouraging us not just to see beauty, but perhaps also to look for the face of God in the moment of suffering, in the face of a stranger, in the face of the vibrant religious other.
Saosećanje može biti sinonim empatiji. Može biti udruženo sa napornijim radom oprosta i pomirenja, ali može se i izraziti u jednostavnom aktu prisustva. Povezano je sa praktičnim vrlinama kao što su velikodušnost i gostoprimstvo i sa nečijim prisustvom kada nam je potrebno, samo kada je neko tu, uz nas. Mislim da je saosećanje ponekad u vezi sa lepotom i pod tim podrazumevam volju da vidimo lepotu u drugima, a ne samo ono što je potrebno popraviti. Jako mi se dopada što moji muslimanski partneri u razgovoru često govore o lepoti kao srži moralne vrednosti. I u tom svetlu, za religiozne, saosećanje nas takođe odvodi na teritoriju misterije ohrabruje nas da vidimo ne samo lepotu, nego možda da i potražimo lice Boga, u trenutku patnje, u licu stranca u licima naših saputnika u religiji.
I'm not sure if I can show you what tolerance looks like, but I can show you what compassion looks like -- because it is visible. When we see it, we recognize it and it changes the way we think about what is doable, what is possible. It is so important when we're communicating big ideas -- but especially a big spiritual idea like compassion -- to root it as we present it to others in space and time and flesh and blood -- the color and complexity of life.
Nisam sigurna da vam mogu pokazati kako izgleda tolerancija, ali vam mogu pokazati kako saosećanje izgleda - zato što je vidljivo. Kada naiđemo na saosećanje, mi ga prepoznamo i ono pormeni način na koji razmišljamo o tome šta se može učiniti, šta je moguće. Veoma je važno da, kada govorimo o velikim idejama, ali pogotovu velikim i spiritualnim, kao što je saosećanje, da ih ukorenimo dok ih predstavljamo drugima u prostoru i vremenu i krvi i mesu, u boji i složenosti života.
And compassion does seek physicality. I first started to learn this most vividly from Matthew Sanford. And I don't imagine that you will realize this when you look at this photograph of him, but he's paraplegic. He's been paralyzed from the waist down since he was 13, in a car crash that killed his father and his sister. Matthew's legs don't work, and he'll never walk again, and -- and he does experience this as an "and" rather than a "but" -- and he experiences himself to be healed and whole. And as a teacher of yoga, he brings that experience to others across the spectrum of ability and disability, health, illness and aging. He says that he's just at an extreme end of the spectrum we're all on. He's doing some amazing work now with veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. And Matthew has made this remarkable observation that I'm just going to offer you and let it sit. I can't quite explain it, and he can't either. But he says that he has yet to experience someone who became more aware of their body, in all its frailty and its grace, without, at the same time, becoming more compassionate towards all of life.
I saosećanje govori o fizikalnosti. Najvernije sam učila o ovome od Metjua Senforda. I mislim da ovo nećete shvatiti kada pogledate njegovu fotografiju, ali on je paraplegičar. Paralizovan je od struka na dole od svoje trinaeste godine posle saobraćajne nesreće u kojoj je izgubio oca i sestru. Metjuove noge ne funkcionišu i on neće ponovo hodati i - i on zaista doživljava sve radije kao "i" nego kao "ali" - i on doživljava sebe kao celog i izlečenog. I kao instruktor joge, on omogućava drugima da dožive isto kroz spektar sposobnosti i nesposobnosti, zdravlja, bolesti i starenja. On kaže da je on samo na samom kraju spektra na kom smo svi mi. On sada radi nešto zadivljujuće sa veteranima iz Iraka i Avganistana. I Metju je zapazio nešto izuzetno, a to ću vam predstaviti i ostaviti da odstoji. Ne mogu to tačno da objasnim, a ne može ni on. Ali on kaže da još nije upoznao onoga ko je postao svesniji svog tela u svoj njegovoj krhkosti i gracioznosti, bez toga da je istovremeno zauzeo saosećajniji stav prema životu.
Compassion also looks like this. This is Jean Vanier. Jean Vanier helped found the L'Arche communities, which you can now find all over the world, communities centered around life with people with mental disabilities -- mostly Down syndrome. The communities that Jean Vanier founded, like Jean Vanier himself, exude tenderness. "Tender" is another word I would love to spend some time resurrecting. We spend so much time in this culture being driven and aggressive, and I spend a lot of time being those things too. And compassion can also have those qualities. But again and again, lived compassion brings us back to the wisdom of tenderness. Jean Vanier says that his work, like the work of other people -- his great, beloved, late friend Mother Teresa -- is never in the first instance about changing the world; it's in the first instance about changing ourselves. He's says that what they do with L'Arche is not a solution, but a sign. Compassion is rarely a solution, but it is always a sign of a deeper reality, of deeper human possibilities.
I tako izgleda saosećanje. Ovo je Žan Vanijer. Žan Vanijer je pomogao osnivanje L'Arche zajednica, kakve sada možeti pronaći po celom svetu, zajednice koje su fokusirane na život ljudi sa mentalnim poremećajima - uglavnom sa Daunovim sindromom. Zajednice koje je Žan Vanijer osnovao, kao i on sam, odišu nežnošću. "Nežan" je još jedna reč na čijem uskrsnuću bih posvetila neko vreme. Provodimo mnogo vremena u ovoj kulturi agresivni i brzopleti, pa i ja se tako ponekad ponašam. I saosećanje može imati te osobine, kao kvalitete. Ali opet i opet, proživljavanje saosećanja dovodi nas nazad na mudrost nežnosti. Žan Vanijer kaže da njegovo delo, kao i dela drugih ljudi, njegove velike, voljene, pokojne prijateljice Majke Tereze, nikad se ne zasniva na želji da promene svet, već na menjanju nas samih. On kaže da ono što rade sa L'Arche zajednicom nije rešenje, nego znak. Saosećanje je retko rešenje, ali je uvek znak dublje realnosti, većih ljudskih mogućnosti.
And compassion is unleashed in wider and wider circles by signs and stories, never by statistics and strategies. We need those things too, but we're also bumping up against their limits. And at the same time that we are doing that, I think we are rediscovering the power of story -- that as human beings, we need stories to survive, to flourish, to change. Our traditions have always known this, and that is why they have always cultivated stories at their heart and carried them forward in time for us. There is, of course, a story behind the key moral longing and commandment of Judaism to repair the world -- tikkun olam.
I saosećanje se oslobađa kroz šire i šire krugove pomoću znakova i priča, nikada putem statistika i strategija. Potrebne su nam i one, ali takođe nailazimo na njihova ograničenja. I u to isto vreme, mislim da ponovo otkrivamo moć priče, kao i da su nam, kao ljudskim bićima, potrebne priče da preživimo, da procvetamo, da se menjamo. Naše tradicije su ovo uvek znale i zbog toga su uvek uzgajane priče i prenošene s kolena na koleno. Postoji, naravno, priča iza ključne moralne čežnje i zapovesti Judaizma da svet treba popraviti - tikkun olam.
And I'll never forget hearing that story from Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, who told it to me as her grandfather told it to her, that in the beginning of the Creation something happened and the original light of the universe was shattered into countless pieces. It lodged as shards inside every aspect of the Creation. And that the highest human calling is to look for this light, to point at it when we see it, to gather it up, and in so doing, to repair the world. Now this might sound like a fanciful tale. Some of my fellow journalists might interpret it that way. Rachel Naomi Remen says this is an important and empowering story for our time, because this story insists that each and every one of us, frail and flawed as we may be, inadequate as we may feel, has exactly what's needed to help repair the part of the world that we can see and touch.
Nikada neću zaboraviti priču koju mi je ispričala dr Rejčel Naomi Remen, koja ju je čula od svog dede, a to je da se na početku Stvaranja nešto desilo i da se prvobitno svetlo univerzuma razbilo u nebrojivo mnogo delova. A delovi su se smestili unutar svakog aspekta Stvaranja. I da je najuzvišeniji ljudski poziv da traži ovo svetlo, da ga nađe, sakupi i na taj način popravi svet. Ovo možda deluje kao neka beznačajna pričica. Neke moje kolege bi je mogle tako interpretirati. Rejčel Naomi Remen kaže da je ovo važna i ohrabrujuća priča za naše vreme, jer insistira na tome da svako od nas koliko god mana da ima, koliko god da se neadekvatnim oseća, ima upravo to što je potrebno da doprinese boljitku sveta vidljivom i opipljivom.
Stories like this, signs like this, are practical tools in a world longing to bring compassion to abundant images of suffering that can otherwise overwhelm us. Rachel Naomi Remen is actually bringing compassion back to its rightful place alongside science in her field of medicine in the training of new doctors. And this trend of what Rachel Naomi Remen is doing, how these kinds of virtues are finding a place in the vocabulary of medicine -- the work Fred Luskin is doing -- I think this is one of the most fascinating developments of the 21st century -- that science, in fact, is taking a virtue like compassion definitively out of the realm of idealism. This is going to change science, I believe, and it will change religion.
Priče, poput ove, ovakvi znaci su praktično oruđe u svetu koji čezne za saosećanjem da bi napustio slike patnje koje ga u suprotnom mogu preplaviti. Rejčel Naomi Remen zapravo daje saosećanju njegovo pravo mesto pored nauke u svojoj sferi medicine tokom obučavanja novih doktora. I ovaj trend koji Rejčel Naomi Remen uvodi, kako ovakve vrline pronalaze mesto u medicinskom vokabularu - kroz rad Freda Luskina - mislim da je to jedno od najfascinantnijih razvoja XXI veka - da nauka, zapravo uzima vrlinu, kao što je saosećanje, iz carstva idealizma. Ovo će promeniti nauku, verujem i da će promeniti religiju.
But here's a face from 20th century science that might surprise you in a discussion about compassion. We all know about the Albert Einstein who came up with E = mc2. We don't hear so much about the Einstein who invited the African American opera singer, Marian Anderson, to stay in his home when she came to sing in Princeton because the best hotel there was segregated and wouldn't have her. We don't hear about the Einstein who used his celebrity to advocate for political prisoners in Europe or the Scottsboro boys in the American South.
Ali evo lica iz oblasti nauke XX veka čija bi vas pojava mogla iznenaditi u diskusiji o saosećanju. Svi znamo za Alberta Ajnštajna koji je pronašao, E = mc2. Ali ne čujemo često da je Ajnštajn pozvao afričkoameričku opersku pevačicu Marijanu Anderson da odsedne kod njega kada je došla da peva na Prinstonu zato što najbolji hotel tamo nije hteo da je primi. Ne čujemo o tome da je Ajnštajn koristio svoju slavu da podrži političke zatvorenike u Evropi ili Skotsboro dečake na američkom Jugu.
Einstein believed deeply that science should transcend national and ethnic divisions. But he watched physicists and chemists become the purveyors of weapons of mass destruction in the early 20th century. He once said that science in his generation had become like a razor blade in the hands of a three-year-old. And Einstein foresaw that as we grow more modern and technologically advanced, we need the virtues our traditions carry forward in time more, not less. He liked to talk about the spiritual geniuses of the ages. Some of his favorites were Moses, Jesus, Buddha, St. Francis of Assisi, Gandhi -- he adored his contemporary, Gandhi. And Einstein said -- and I think this is a quote, again, that has not been passed down in his legacy -- that "these kinds of people are geniuses in the art of living, more necessary to the dignity, security and joy of humanity than the discoverers of objective knowledge."
Ajnštajn je duboko verovao da bi nauka trebalo da prevaziđe nacionalne i etničke podele. Ali video je kako fizičari i hemičari postaju snadbevači oružja za masovnu destrukciju tokom početka XX veka. Jednom je rekao da je nauka njegove generacije postala kao oštrica u rukama trogodišnjeg deteta. I on je predvideo da nam je, kako se modernizujemo i tehnički unapređujemo, potrebno više, a ne manje, vrlina koje su naše generacije prenosile decenijama s kolena na koleno. Voleo je da govori o duhovnim vođama. Neki od njegovih omiljenih bili su Mojsije, Isus, Buda, Sveti Francis od Asisija, Gandi - on je obožavao svog savremenika, Gandija. I Ajnštajn je rekao i mislim da su ovo baš njegove reči, opet, to se ne smatra njegovim zaveštanjem, da su "takve vrste ljudi", geniji umetnosti življenja, važniji za dostojanstvo, sigurnost i sreću ljudske rase od pronalazača objektivnih znanja."
Now invoking Einstein might not seem the best way to bring compassion down to earth and make it seem accessible to all the rest of us, but actually it is. I want to show you the rest of this photograph, because this photograph is analogous to what we do to the word "compassion" in our culture -- we clean it up and we diminish its depths and its grounding in life, which is messy. So in this photograph you see a mind looking out a window at what might be a cathedral -- it's not. This is the full photograph, and you see a middle-aged man wearing a leather jacket, smoking a cigar. And by the look of that paunch, he hasn't been doing enough yoga. We put these two photographs side-by-side on our website, and someone said, "When I look at the first photo, I ask myself, what was he thinking? And when I look at the second, I ask, what kind of person was he? What kind of man is this?"
Pozivanje na Ajnštajna možda sada ne deluje kao najbolji način da se efikasno podseti na saosećanje i da se ono učini dostupnim svima nama, ali zapravo, jeste. Želim da vam pokažem ostatak ove fotografije zato što je ona analogna tome što radimo sa rečju saosećanje u našoj kulturi - mi je pročistimo i umanjimo njenu dubinu i temelje, njen značaj u životu. Tako, na ovoj fotografiji vidite um koji gleda kroz prozor u nešto što liči na katedralu, ali nije. Ovo je cela fotografija na kojoj vidite sredovečnog čoveka koji nosi kožnu jaknu i puši cigaretu. I po izgledu njegovog stomaka, on nije radio dovoljno joge. Stavili smo ove dve fotografije jednu pored druge na naš sajt i neko je rekao: "Kada pogledam u prvu fotografiju, zapitam se, o čemu li je razmišljao u tom trenutku. A kada pogledam u drugu, pomislim, kakva li je osoba bio. Kakav čovek je bio?"
Well, he was complicated. He was incredibly compassionate in some of his relationships and terribly inadequate in others. And it is much harder, often, to be compassionate towards those closest to us, which is another quality in the universe of compassion, on its dark side, that also deserves our serious attention and illumination. Gandhi, too, was a real flawed human being. So was Martin Luther King, Jr. So was Dorothy Day. So was Mother Teresa. So are we all. And I want to say that it is a liberating thing to realize that that is no obstacle to compassion -- following on what Fred Luskin says -- that these flaws just make us human.
Pa, bio je komplikovan. Neverovatno saosećajan sa nekim ljudima, dok je sa drugima bio prilično neadekvatan. A mnogo je teže, ponekad, biti saosećajan prema onima koji su nam najbliži što je još jedna stavka u univerzumu saosećanja, samo na onoj drugoj, tamnoj strani koja takođe zaslužuje našu punu pažnju i razmatranje. Gandi je takođe bio ljudsko biće sa puno mana. Kao i Martin Luter King mlađi. Kao i Doroti Dej. Kao i Majka Tereza. Kao i svi mi. I želim da kažem da je oslobađajuće kada spoznamo da ne postoji prepreka saosećanju, kao što je Fred Luskin rekao, da nas ove mane upravo i čine ljudima.
Our culture is obsessed with perfection and with hiding problems. But what a liberating thing to realize that our problems, in fact, are probably our richest sources for rising to this ultimate virtue of compassion, towards bringing compassion towards the suffering and joys of others. Rachel Naomi Remen is a better doctor because of her life-long struggle with Crohn's disease. Einstein became a humanitarian, not because of his exquisite knowledge of space and time and matter, but because he was a Jew as Germany grew fascist. And Karen Armstrong, I think you would also say that it was some of your very wounding experiences in a religious life that, with a zigzag, have led to the Charter for Compassion. Compassion can't be reduced to sainthood any more than it can be reduced to pity.
Naša kultura je opsednuta savršenstvom i sakrivanjem problema. Ali kako je oslobađajuće shvatiti da naši problemi, u stvari, predstavljaju naše najbogatije izvore za uzdizanje ka ovoj krajnjoj vrlini, saosećanju, prema pokazivanju saosećanja i onima koji pate i onima koji se raduju. Rejčel Naomi Remen je bolji doktor zbog svoje celoživotne borbe sa Kronovom bolešću. Ajnštajn je bio humanitarac, ne zahvaljujući svom velikom znanju o prostoru i vremenu i materiji, nego zbog toga što je bio Jevrejin u fašističkoj Nemačkoj. Mislim da bi se i Karen Armstrong složila sa tim da su je neka njena ranija iskustva iz religijskog života neka više, neka manje, vodila do Povelje o saosećanju. Saosećanje se ne može redukovati na svetački život, kao što se ne može poistovećivati sa žaljenjem.
So I want to propose a final definition of compassion -- this is Einstein with Paul Robeson by the way -- and that would be for us to call compassion a spiritual technology. Now our traditions contain vast wisdom about this, and we need them to mine it for us now. But compassion is also equally at home in the secular as in the religious.
Zato želim da predložim konačnu definiciju saosećanja - uzgred, ovo je Ajnštajn sa Polom Robensonom - i po njoj saosećanje je duhovna tehnologija. Sada naše tradicije sadrže neograničenu mudrost po ovom pitanju i nama je potrebno da se to stavi u stranu. Saosećanje je podjednako i kod kuće, u svetovnom, kao i u religioznom smislu.
So I will paraphrase Einstein in closing and say that humanity, the future of humanity, needs this technology as much as it needs all the others that have now connected us and set before us the terrifying and wondrous possibility of actually becoming one human race.
Parafraziraću Ajnštajna i reći da je ljudskom rodu, kao i njegovoj budućnosti, ova tehnologija potrebna koliko i sve ostale koje nas povezuju i omogućavaju nam, iako zastrašujuće i čudesno, da zapravo postanemo ljudska rasa.
Thank you.
Hvala vam!
(Applause)
(Aplauz)